Prusa i3 3D printer

[tekkydave]

Yesterday I pressed the button on this 3D printer kit http://www.emakershop.com/browse/listing?l=1126. It should be arriving on Tuesday next week. Guess what I'll be doing over Christmas

I'll post my progress in this thread. Has anyone else built or used one of these?

I thought about buying a ready-built printer like the UP which Gina has but I can't afford the price. This kit is only £399 + £12 p&p and I shouldn't have any problems building it. Being a bit of a tinkerer I prefer the open-source route. It is built from easily obtained components and uses an Arduino mega for control. All the software is open-source so can be modified if required. The plastic parts are all built from open-source 3D designs and you can even make a set and give or sell them to another builder for their printer.

For those on twitter/facebook - if you follow & like the seller they knock 20 quid off your order.

This is the kit on the eMaker website. The printable plastic parts are on the LHS

http://www.emakershop.com/wp-content/uploads/tableaux/cLOMyPRF.jpg

This is the assembled printer (rocket not included)

http://www.emakershop.com/wp-content/uploads/tableaux/YJnp4YgE.jpg

[Grotemobile]

They have really come down in price now.

I followed Gina,s printer build.That was

a, epic project. Hope yours goes a bit easier.

Keep us updated on how it goes.

Steve

[happy-kat]

I like reading these project threads so look forward to any progress updates :-)

[Gina]

Hopefully you'll enjoy putting that together   Good luck

[tekkydave]

Hopefully you'll enjoy putting that together   Good luck

Thanks. I want to make a proper bracket to mount my focuser on the back of my 127 mak as my first project. I'm trying out 3d drawing apps on my tablet at the moment to see if there are any decent ones.

[Dave_D]

looks good.... now, if only cnc routers would drop in price like 3d printers have...

[tekkydave]

The printer kit finally arrived today. It was well packed in 2 pizza boxes (unused ). There are no assembly instructions but there is plenty out there on the web and some pictures on the suppliers facebook page.

I have built the y-axis carriage today. It took a lot of working out but I think its good so far. I put the y motor bracket on the wrong way round so had to swap it around later.

Contents

Starting the y axis carriage.

The front including the y axis idler.

The long edge threaded rods.

All connected via printed corner pieces. Shows the long edge smooth rods that the bed slides on.

The linear bearings are tie-wrapped below the bed.

Top view. The frame is adjusted so the bed slides all the way along with minimum friction. The motor mounting bracket is in the centre of the left-hand threaded rod.

Close up of front.

Bottom view. Printed part in centre of bed is where the motor belt attaches.

[tekkydave]

Made a lot of progress today and got most of the mechanicals built.

To assemble the x motor mount I needed to cut out a small section of plastic in the centre that was stopping the two bearings from sitting flat and in-line.

The tie-wraps needed to be curled tightly at the end in order to get them to bend round and come out of the exit holes. The bearings were then mounted and the tie-wraps tightened. I used one of the smooth rods while doing this to ensure they were perfectly in-line.

m

The same was then done for the x idler...

...and the x carriage

The idler bearings were installed in the x idler.

The M5 nuts for the z-axis drive were then inserted in the x idler...

...and x motor mount

The x axis smooth rods were then carefully inserted into the three x axis components.

The next step was to mount the z axis lower left & right mounts

Then I carefully pushed the z axis smooth rods through the holes in the brackets. The holes are very tight so needed widening carefully with a round file. The brackets did bend slightly once the rods were inserted but once the motors are mounted it will give them strength.

The x axis assembly was carefully slid onto the smooth rods and the upper pair of brackets installed. The x axis length needs to be adjusted while doing this to ensure that it runs smoothly along the z axis.

Next I installed the z axis threaded rods. These are driven directly by two z axis motors and move the x axis up & down via the M5 nuts held captive in the x motor mount & x idler.

Next I installed the z axis motors on the left & right lower brackets. They connect to the drive rods via a plastic coupling which is also tie-wrapped to prevent slippage.

The z axis endstop was clipped round the smooth rod and secured.

The y axis motor was mounted

The x axis motor was mounted

Then the y axis was then mounted to the bottom of the frame via the M10 bolts on the y-axis.

Phew, quite a busy day.

[Dave Lloyd]

Those orange bits look 3d printed themselves.

[Dave Lloyd]

Oops, I think I missed something.

[tekkydave]

Those orange bits look 3d printed themselves.

Yes they are. The aim of the reprap project, which this is the latest version, is eventually to have a printer that can completely replicate itself. I don't know how they plan to do the threaded rods and stepper motors though

At least I can make my own spare parts. There is also a lot of variations on the parts online that can be downloaded and printed.

[Gina]

Coming on very nicely Dave

[tekkydave]

The instructions I am following are for a similar printer here http://youprintin3d.de/media/pdf/prusa-i3-rework-assembly-instructions.pdf

plus the pictures on the kit suppliers facebook page https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1509216615997974.1073741834.1445260332393603

There is a lot of information and links on the Reprap wiki site http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

[Gina]

I'm basing my larger experimental 3D printer on the RepRap.  With plastic parts produced on my UP! Plus 2 printer.  Guess it's high time I did some more on that project

[tekkydave]

I'm basing my larger experimental 3D printer on the RepRap.  With plastic parts produced on my UP! Plus 2 printer.  Guess it's high time I did some more on that project

Another project to get going, eh? The kit I got is definitely one for experimenters - I have already had to make a few tiny modifications. There was a hole missing from the y axis bed support plate and I had to drill some out a tad so the screws would pass through (glad I got that bench drill now ). I also had to remove some plastic on the x axis parts yesterday with a stanley knife to allow the bearings to fit. The lack of comprehensive build instructions would floor some beginners but there's loads of generic stuff on the interweb. All minor things to me. If you are interested the supplier sells via emakershop http://www.emakershop.com/Seller=801 and does all parts separately so you could just get the bits you need. I've had excellent service so far.

[tekkydave]

Today I attached the toothed belts to the x and y axes.

X axis

Y axis

I started on the extruder - pics to follow.

[happy-kat]

They have a 3d printer on the ISS now, made it's first part recently.

[tekkydave]

They have a 3d printer on the ISS now, made it's first part recently.

I think it was a spanner.

[Gina]

Another project to get going, eh? The kit I got is definitely one for experimenters - I have already had to make a few tiny modifications. There was a hole missing from the y axis bed support plate and I had to drill some out a tad so the screws would pass through (glad I got that bench drill now ). I also had to remove some plastic on the x axis parts yesterday with a stanley knife to allow the bearings to fit. The lack of comprehensive build instructions would floor some beginners but there's loads of generic stuff on the interweb. All minor things to me. If you are interested the supplier sells via emakershop http://www.emakershop.com/Seller=801 and does all parts separately so you could just get the bits you need. I've had excellent service so far.

Thank you for the link Dave - could be useful   I've got my extras from either ebay or Amazon so far. 

3D prints usually need a bit of tidying up - you get odd ridges and rough bits at times - don't know why.

I could do with getting back to my experimental 3D printer as there are some things I want to print that are too big for the UP.   The UP is a great printer but limited to about 130mm cube print dimensions.  I want 150mm diameter parts for my widefield imaging rig and have been printing these in sections which is not ideal   The extruder carriage is probably done now as is the X axis drive.  The Y drive is basically just the Velleman kit system.  I have more to do on the Z drive which is belt driven rather than threaded rod for better accuracy.  I also have the electronics to sort out.  I'll probably get it working with the standard 200mm x 200mm print bed first before producing my own 200mm x 350mm print bed using an aluminium plate with 2 or 3 heaters underneath.  Thread here

[tekkydave]

Here are the pictures of the extruder assembly so far. This part of the printer will eventually bolt to the x-axis carriage and will feed the plastic filament at a steady rate through to the hot-end which will be mounted below. It took me a while to work it all out as the picture on the suppliers FB page was of a different extruder. I think it's correct but I have tweeted them a picture to confirm. I also got the bolt that holds the idler in the wrong way round on these shots. It is simple enough to take out and re-insert from the other side.

[tekkydave]

More progress today. First I assembled the supplied E3D hotend. I had some trouble getting the thermistor to stay in place without shorting to the aluminium block. I decided not to use the supplied bolt and just tie-wrapped it to the heater element cable. A spare is supplied so I may end up re-doing this. If I do I will drill the thermistor hole a tad deeper.

*

There is a 30mm fan and duct supplied to keep the heatsink cooled.

Fitted to the x-carriage:

I then installed the endstop switches. First the z-axis

Then the x-axis. This also shows the adjustment screw to set the z-axis zero height.

And finally the y-axis switch

The next task was to fit the heated bed. The supplier had already soldered the heating wires and taped the thermistor to the lower surface. All I had to do was fit the bed to the aluminium base using m3 bolts and springs. This allows adjustments for levelling the bed.

Tomorrow I'm making a start on the electronics.

[Gina]

That hot end looks the same as mine for my experimental 3D printer

[tekkydave]

Earlier this week I started connecting all the electronics together. I started by adapting the supplied PSU which is actually a PC ATX power supply. This needs the 'power on' switch to be simulated by grounding the green wire and also some load applied to some of the rails to enable the 12V output. All the instructions are on the suppliers FB page and online. The power resistors needed to supply the load get hot so they are attached to the case to get some cooling from the fan. The black (0V) and yellow (12V) wires are connected to the 11A and 5A sections of the RAMPS 12V power connector.

Then I connected all the electronics together. The RAMPS 1.4 shield attaches to the Arduino Mega. Then 4 small daughter boards which are the stepper drivers connect to the RAMPS. All the leads for the various parts of the printer then connect to the RAMPS board. I found that the motor connectors needed inserting the opposite way round to the picture on the FB page. The yellow labels were added by me to make it easier to see what was going on. It looks a bit like an explosion in a spaghetti factory at the moment but I will tidy it up once I know its all working.

I next set about connecing the Arduino via USB to my PC to test the movement. I chose a program called Pronterface which is commonly used. That's when I discovered there was no firmware installed on the Arduino. I downloaded Marlin and uploaded it to the Arduino. This time it connected and I could move the printer motors around.

Today I have completed setting up the three axes endstops to get the correct range of movement. I've also done a test heat-up of the bed and extruder and they seem to work ok. Next step will be to calibrate the extruder position accurately above the bed so it starts printing in the right place.

[Gina]

Coming on nicely Dave   One thing I've noiticed is that your stepper driver modules have heatsinks whereas mine haven't.  Same with the Velleman kit and I had problems with the driver chips blowing up.  Maybe the chips are running at their limit and newer designs have heat radiators to stop them overheating.  I think I'll look for ones with the heat radiators to use rather than the ones without.  Here's a (lousy) photo.

[Gina]

I've ordered some heatsinks for my drivers.